Emily Roughton

Emily Roughton came down to Auckland from Whangarei for the food, but still she will eat no fish.  She came in an old banger of a car with everything she needed in the boot.  It's all still in there, but that car is dead now.  She brought her fiddle, and now she's everywhere, even though she only uses the middle two strings. Prodigiously talented, she's work shy and prefers to play in other people's bands, though they're sometimes named after her. 

Emily grew up on a hearty combination of Bob Dylan, Pavarotti and Keith Green, which has translated into a love of every type of music under the sun.  She mostly just plays jigs and reels after being inspired by the ceilidh scene on the movie Titanic.  Early days on the piano were followed by screeching violin practice at age 14, and whilst she now is only slightly less screechy, she has worked out a winning game plan, which is simply to stay out of third position, distract the audience by stomping loudly, and try to sound a little bit like Hanneke Cassel… dreams are free.

Emily’s playing is firmly grounded in the roots of the Scottish tradition. Together with band 'Fiddlelore,' she undertook a tour of the UK in 2011, was awarded the Frank Winter Memorial Award 2010, and was a semi-finalist in the TV show NZ's Got Talent 2008 (soundly beaten by a hip hop dancer).  She is the 2012 and 2013 Scottish Fiddle Champion and annually conducts the Auckland Folk Festival Youth Orchestra.  Emily has taught workshops at the NZ Gaidhealtachd and Celticanz music festivals as well as workshops in association with The String Workshop and Rangitoto College Music Department.  Current music projects are with bands Three Point Turn and Rough Town.